The present invention relates to means for clamping. In particular, the invention relates to a means for clamping that can be used for a variety of purposes, including supporting of pipe and maintaining the position of other relatively heavy objects as well.
A variety of clamping means are known in the art and are in many cases designed for use in specific applications. For example, German Patent DE 31 10716 A1 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,379,651 and 681,604 represent just a few of the myriad means of clamping known in the art, and further illustrate the fact that a number of industries have searched for such clamping means over many years. In general these clamping means are directed to ensuring maintenance of position, but variables such as loading levels and characteristics of the article itself whose position is to be maintained, including performance variables relating to the article""s constituent materials, configuration and use conditions, continue to present unique challenges in designing clamps which perform optimally. In addition, opportunities are presented to find new uses for clamps which, by nature, offer temporary but relatively secure positioning and easy removal, for applications wherein heretofore more permanent affixment means were used.
One example where such relatively permanent positioning is conventionally employed is in supports for pipes. Typically, welding is employed to attach a supporting fixture, frequently on or to an I-beam or similar permanent structural element, while the pipe is typically enclosed by the supporting fixture in some way that severely restricts or prevents the pipe""s lateral movement but which allows limited axial movement to compensate for metallurgical and physical reactions to fluids being carried by the pipe, to flow forces, and/or to external conditions. However, the affixment process itself, which as already noted frequently requires welding of the supporting fixture to the structural element, introduces potential dangers due to ignition of volatiles and/or flammable materials present in the local environment. Similarly, to remove such supporting fixtures in the event of a reconfiguration of the piping scheme, cutting implements such as acetylene torches again present the possibility of unintended ignition. For both affixment and removal, time and difficulty, and particularly the need for appropriately skilled labor such as welders, increase associated costs.
Accordingly, it would be useful in the art to have a means of easily and temporarily affixing pipe supporting fixtures, as well as other objects, in desirable positions, without the need for welding and similar affixment processes, whereby the position can be securely maintained despite high loadings and yet easily dismantled to accommodate desired changes in such positionings. In particular, it would be useful for this means to be able to be customized, particularly to a wide variety of such fixtures, to enable rapid deployment and re-deployment. Further, it would be desirable in the art for such means to be easily fabricated with as few parts as possible, such that performance weaknesses and failures resulting from the fabrication process itself can be minimized or eliminated.